A Sonnet Composed At The Breaking Of Your Heart
by Phantom Dove
Summary: HD HrR How far will you go for the one you love?


Harry

I had made arrangements for a picnic lunch that morning. Draco had always loved eating on top of this abandoned turret off by the lake. It was small and slightly decrepit but we had taken it for our own, liberating gargoyles for chairs and broken bricks for footstools. We had whiled away many hours up there, laughing, joking, arguing, and getting to know each other. The house elves had packed a delicious meal with chicken and bread and cheese, along with Merlin knows how many desserts. We had meandered over to the edge of the turret when I leaned over and kissed him. After a few heated moments, Draco pulled away and danced out of reach.

"Oi Harry, you prat, you're too slow!" he cried. Laughing, I had hustled after him. We charged around the broken down sides and moss-covered boulders until I caught and pinned him to a dilapidated gargoyle. But he slithered like a snake and hopped up on the edge of a crumbling wall, leaning precariously out over the lawn. The steep drop had seemed insignificant in the wake of our hormones. Suddenly, violently, Draco had stumbled and fallen, right over the lip of the tower. I raced towards the edge, hoping, praying, that he hadn't really fallen or it wasn't real, or that I could save him before he hit the ground. I couldn't bear to think of the alternative. I swear I didn't think it was true. One minute he had been laughing and flirting atrociously, the next, lying snapped and broken at the foot of that ancient tower. I looked around wildly and saw the crowd beginning to gather where he lay. I saw from the corner of my eye, students congregating in the windows, amongst the crowd, Ron and Hermione peering through the broken glass of a corridor's balconette. I was shattered inside. My heart was split into a thousand splintered pieces. Through it all, I couldn't help but blame myself.

Ron

I didn't see him fall. I heard the gasp from my girlfriend and turned, but just missed the blond tumble to his demise. I didn't hear the crunch when he hit the ground. I imagine it though. All that Death-eating slime coalescing in a blob on the Hogwart's lawn. I'm sure it would have been a satisfying sound. Instead, I hugged Hermione close and together we looked through the missing window panes and over the balconette onto the grounds. I saw him then, pale hair and red blood, snapped and splintered in irreparable pieces, like an unfinished jigsaw, scattered over the lawn. I knew they would never discover the hex. Such a tiny stumbling jinx would surely not be found even if one was looking for that very thing. A wizard's innate magic tends to burn hex marks off the magical signature almost instantaneously; especially such a trivial hex as that. It was too insignificant to show up on a scan charm even moments after death.

Two years they had been dating and I knew the ferret had Harry wrapped around his little finger. I had decided after day one that it wouldn't last, it couldn't. When Harry refused to break up with him, I made a valiant attempt to get the blond ferrety problem to remove itself. But the snooty little Death Eater in training had ignored my threats, blackmail, bargains, and even pleas. I tried everything I could find in my Auror training manual to no avail. So I chose a more permanent route.

It was sheer luck that led me to be making out with Hermione at the right time and the right place to execute my unlikely plan. Well, perhaps a bit of it was contrived, but my History texts could have been left in Trelawney's attic any time and it was a perfect alibi when Hermione wanted to come up with me. Just in case. But you have to admit, it was the git's own fault that he jumped up onto the ledge. I had been planning a crumbling hex on one of those gargoyles but the ferret set up a better opportunity. My stealthy jinx flew silently to his heel and took him down. I had aimed over my shoulder when Hermione had her eyes closed and turned back immediately, leaving myself free to turn again at the sound of her gasp. But I didn't see him fall. More's the pity. But as his best friend, I did what I had to. Harry is safe now.

Hermione

I was up on a broken balconette when I saw Draco Malfoy fall off the tower to his death. I saw him trip, saw him lose his balance, saw him go over the edge. I could have saved him, but I was not quick enough. The smartest witch in my class and I couldn't forget my Muggle heritage long enough to cast a most basic _Wingardium Leviosa_ spell. I had forgotten my abilities in my first year in a fruitless attempt to create fire and here, when someone's life was at stake, I froze. My inaction resulted in the loss of Draco Malfoy's life. Draco, whose presence I had come to enjoy, regardless of his lord-of-the-manor act and haughty demeanor. We had engaged in lively conversation with on many occasions on a variety of topic from the subtle nuances of Transfiguration to the differences between Invisibility potions versus charms. Tentatively at first, but with more fire and conviction as time went by we had become friends. But I stood there like a statue, doing nothing and because of my ineptitude, he died.

But worse, so much worse, was watching in unstoppable slow motion as Harry charged the wall, watching helplessly as he was forced to watch as another loved one was violently killed in front of him. My heart broke and a part of my heart crusted over.

But the reason, the real reason I did nothing was the state of pure shock that I was in. I saw Ron's wand spark, saw his secret smile and I knew. I knew and I was completely shaken, down to my core. I gasped but did nothing when he pulled me close, my bile rising as he feigned surprise and remorse. Together we peered at Draco's body, Ron's arm snuggling me closer. As I glimpsed Harry's stricken face, I knew what I had to do. I squeezed Ron back and glanced calculatingly up at him. As Harry's best friend, it is my prerogative to keep him safe. I know a threat when I see one.


End file.
